Re-​amping in BR1

This guide will explain how to cor­rectly Re-​amp a DI Gui­tar or Bass sig­nal avoid­ing feed­back and achiev­ing a good sig­nal to noise ratio.

---

Prepa­ra­tion:

1. The re-​amping process requires a DI sig­nal from a Gui­tar or Bass depend­ing on what instru­ment is required. To record a DI sig­nal plug the gui­tar or bass directly into a DI box, this will only record the sound of the instru­ment and the per­for­mance allow­ing dras­tic alter­ation of tone later on.

---

Pro ­Tools:

1. Within Pro ­Tools either select or cre­ate a track with the DI sig­nal and set the out­put to an empty chan­nel of the desk. Ensure that the out­put selected is not being used by any other sound source.

2. It is also worth acti­vat­ing ‘Solo Safe’ for the DI chan­nel in Pro ­Tools by using the com­bi­na­tion of com­mand (⌘) and click­ing on the solo but­ton for the respec­tive chan­nel.

---

Desk Rout­ing:

1. The sig­nal needs to be sent out of the desk via the FX 1 send. Press the pot in to turn FX 1 on and the yel­low light will appear.

2. In the mas­ter send sec­tion in the top right hand side of the desk make sure that the FX 1 Mas­ter level is up.

You can see the sig­nal going through on the level meter.

3. To check the rout­ing press the ‘AFL’ but­ton below the FX 1 Mas­ter Dial.

If the AFL level is up (located above the Mon­i­tor con­trol) and the rout­ing is cor­rect the DI sig­nal should be audi­ble from the monitors.

If this is not the case ensure that the rout­ing from Pro­ Tools and the desk is correct.

Once the DI sig­nal rout­ing has been con­firmed as cor­rect des­e­lect the AFL as hear­ing the DI sig­nal is no longer necessary.

---

Patch­ing:

1. To con­nect the desk to the live room use a Ban­tam to Ban­tam cable to con­nect the ‘‘SSL AWS 924 FX Out 1′ to ‘BR1 Tie Line’.

Pick whichever tie line you to come into the live room.

2. Before con­nect­ing to the re-​amp box, make sure the ‘TRIM’ dial is at 0.

In the live room, con­nect the same tieline selected in the pre­vi­ous step to the bal­anced input of a reamp box using a TRS to TRS cable.

3. Take a TS to TS cable and con­nect the ‘Hi-​Z’ Out­put of the Reamp box to the ampli­fier input, if you are using a combo amp in the live room.

4. Before con­nect­ing an IEC to the ampli­fier, make sure that the power and standby switches are off and also make sure that all vol­ume and gain dials are set to 0 (fully rotated anti-​clockwise).

Once this is checked, con­nect an IEC and turn the ampli­fier on.

---

Vol­ume and Tone:

1. To begin with bring up the trim dial on the re-​amp box to around a quar­ter (the 9 o’clock position).

Then adjust the gui­tar ampli­fier vol­ume dial or dials slowly to achieve a good level and tone.

---

Trou­bleshoot­ing Noise:

1. Due to the unbal­anced high gain nature of gui­tar ampli­fiers they can often have quite high noise floors. Here are a few ways noise can be reduced and a good sig­nal to noise ratio can be achieved.

2. Hum or Buzz – If the gui­tar ampli­fier is hum­ming or buzzing try flip­ping the ‘OPEN/​GND’ switch on the re-​amp box, then try turn­ing off any addi­tional unused ampli­fiers that may be in the room. If these steps do no resolve the issue con­tact the stu­dio technicians.

3. Low Sig­nal or Extreme Hiss­ing – if the gui­tar ampli­fier has a poor sig­nal to noise ratio often char­ac­terised by loud hiss­ing with lit­tle gui­tar sig­nal try boost­ing the sig­nal at these points:

–Chan­nel Strip Line Trim Dial (Black Dial located near the top of the chan­nel strip)

–Chan­nel Strip Aux 1 send (above the fader of the chan­nel being used for the DI)

–Aux 1 Mas­ter Dial (in the top right hand cor­ner of the desk)

–Re-​Amp Box trim dial

–Gui­tar Ampli­fier gain dial or vol­ume dial

---

Record­ing:

1. Once the ampli­fier is setup, record­ing can begin.

Make sure to record the ampli­fier onto a dif­fer­ent track within Pro­ Tools and not the DI track.

Record­ing onto the DI track will cause a feed­back loop, as the sig­nal from the micro­phone will be instantly sent back to the ampli­fier and re-​recorded into Pro Tools.

In order to lis­ten to the sound of the ampli­fier in Pro ­Tools with­out record­ing hit the green ‘L’ or ‘Lis­ten’ but­ton on the chan­nel in Pro Tools.